The bad press is pretty much accurate. I worked there for close to a year and it only took me maybe a few weeks to realize why the turnover among employees was so bad and exactly what I had gotten myself into. While some like myself stuck around because we were able to tolerate the normal BS (late paychecks and bouncing paychecks on a routine basis, occasionally shaving hours off of timecards) for an otherwise tolerable job (difficult to find in Lawrence), it was rare for anyone to stay on the payroll while the majority of employees would quit within 3-4 months. Many were ""fired"" by Greg for whatever reason; usually it was their unwillingness to put up with drunken verbal abuse, often they would be vocal about pay issues, sometimes it was because they were gay, sometimes they were accused of ""being slutty,"" etc.
If those who quit were LUCKY they would get their last paychecks (those who were ""fired"" obviously did not). When I quit I put in my two-week notice and left the restaurant on perfectly good terms and it still took 4 months of prying and very overt patience to finally get my last two paychecks; anything showing hostility by trying to take action through Better Business or the small claims court (yeah... right) would guarantee pissing the man off and you never getting paid unless you were willing to dish out the money to hire a lawyer and press charges (which has been done by previous employees in the past from what I understood, but only to middling degrees of success).
The notoriety of ""Papa Keno's"" is also quite well known around Lawrence; local money venders will refuse to cash a check with the name on it; local businesses will refuse to do work for them. Many are well aware of their troubles with the IRS, having been shut down at least 1-2 times in the past for tax evasion.
I know this has little to do with the restaurant itself, but I feel like if people are willing to spend money here they should be aware of what they're contributing to. And I realize this sounds like an attempt at character assassination on my part, but the truth is, there are literally dozens, maybe hundreds, of previous employees who would be able to verify these claims, and it looks like there's already been a few on this page. The truth is, Greg assassinates his own character.
Other than all of that, the food is great!
more